Furballs' Little Corner: Furball's Little Heartlet Handkerchief

Furballs' Little Heartlet Handkerchief is the first charity pattern for 2019 (and I hope I can post one (1) charity pattern a month to gather momentum for donation towards cat / animal shelters). This pattern is just in time for Valentine :D

This pattern features a way to knit the heart shape in flat and in one piece. It is very versatile.  It can be a coaster, a facial scrubby / cosmetic removal pad, an embellishment to sew on other pieces or hanging them in a string for home decoration.  In this pattern, the shape is built up with simple increase and decrease, therefore the edges turn sharper (unlike using short rows) and therefore blocking is recommended to smooth that out for purrfection.  Also because of the rapid increase and decrease, the selvedge is tighter than expected, so minor curling occurs whilst it is in garter stitch. 

One of the advantage knitting the heart this way is interesting colour work.  Horizontally knitted block stripes are viewed as vertical stripes (as seen below: Ninth Heart in One String) without the need to use bobbin(s) or carry yarn creating floats.

 

 

Enjoy the knitting and when using the pattern in part or in full, please remember to donate generously to your local cat / animals shelter.  Thank you :)

Charity Pattern 2019/1

Furballs' Little Heartlet Handkerchief

Materials

Yarn, worsted weight, non mercerized 100% cotton (o.4 oz. / 11 g, 17.6 yd. / 16.1 m) OR acrylic (0.2 oz. / 5.5 g, 9.2 yd. / 8.4 m)

 

Knitting needles, straight, circular or double point, size 3.50 mm / US 4, one (1) pair

Scissors and yarn needle

Gauge (Pre block, garter stitch in situ)

4" x 4" / 10 cm x 10 cm          18 sts x 40 rows (cotton)

                                                    20 sts x 44 rows (acrylic)

Measurement (Pre block)

Length x Width          5" x 4" / 12.5 cm x 10 cm (cotton)

                                      4 ¹/₄" x 3 ¹/₂" / 11 cm x 9 cm (acrylic)

Abbreviations

CO       Cast on

k2tog  Knit two (2) stitches together

kfb      Knit the front and back loop of the same stitch

k          Knit

ppso    Pass previous stitch over

psso    Pass slipped stitch over

RS        Right side

sl1       Slip one (1) stitch purlwise with yarn in front

ssk       Slip, slip, knit

st(s)     Stitch(es)

Specialty stitch: Slip one (1) stitch purlwise / part of selvedge (sl1)

Working on both RS or WS,
Step 1 With the first stitch on the left (holding) needle, use the right (working) needle and slip the stitch purlwise holding the yarn in front of the right needle
Step 2 To set up to knit, bring the yarn to the back through the left side of the slipped stitch. To set up to purl, leave the yarn in front

 

Using 3.50 mm knitting needle, CO 4 sts using long tail cast on
Follow the written instruction below

First Half of the heart

Row 1 (RS)  sl1, kfb x 2, k1 (6 sts)

Row 2 (WS)  sl1, kfb, k2, kfb, k1 (8 sts)

Row 3  sl1, kfb, k4, kfb, k1 (10 sts)

Row 4  sl1, kfb, k6, kfb, k1 (12 sts)

Row 5  sl1, kfb, k8, kfb, k1 (14 sts)

Row 6  sl1, kfb, k10, kfb, k1 (16 sts)

 

Row 7  sl1, k until the last 2 sts, kfb, k1 (17 sts)

Row 8  sl1, kfb, k to the end of row (18 sts)

Row 9  sl1, k until the last 2 sts, kfb, k1 (19 sts)

Row 10  sl1, kfb, k to the end of row (20 sts)

Row 11  sl1, k until the last 2 sts, kfb, k1 (21 sts)

Row 12  sl1, kfb, k to the end of row (22 sts)

 

Row 13   sl1, ssk, k to the last 2 sts, kfb, k1 (22 sts)

Row 14   sl1, kfb, k to the last 2 sts, k2tog, k1 (22 sts)

Row 15   sl1, ssk, k to the last 2 sts, kfb, k1 (22 sts)

Row 16   sl1, kfb, k to the last 2 sts, k2tog, k1 (22 sts)

Row 17  sl1, ssk, k to the last 2 sts, kfb, k1 (22 sts)

Row 18  sl1, kfb, k to the last 2 sts, k2tog, k1 (22 sts)

 

Second Half of the heart

Row 19  sl1, kfb, k to the last 3 sts, k2tog, k1 (22 sts)

Row 20  sl1, ssk, k to the last 2 sts, kfb, k1 (22 sts)

Row 21  sl1, kfb, k to the last 3 sts, k2tog, k1 (22 sts)

Row 22  sl1, ssk, k to the last 2 sts, kfb, k1 (22 sts)

Row 23  sl1, kfb, k to the last 3 sts, k2tog, k1 (22 sts)

Row 24  sl1, ssk, k to the last 2 sts, kfb, k1 (22 sts)

 

Row 25  sl1, k to the last 3 sts, k2tog, k1 (21 sts)

Row 26  sl1, ssk, k to the end of row (20 sts)

Row 27  sl1, k to the last 3 sts, k2tog, k1 (19 sts)

Row 28  sl1, ssk, k to the end of row (18 sts)

Row 29  sl1, k to the last 3 sts, k2tog, k1 (17 sts)

Row 30  sl1, ssk, k to the end of row (16 sts)

 

Row 31  sl1, ssk,  k to the last 3 sts, k2tog, k1 (14 sts)

Row 32  sl1, ssk, k to the last 3 sts, k2tog, k1 (12 sts)

Row 33  sl1, ssk, k to the last 3 sts, k2tog, k1 (10 sts)

Row 34  sl1, ssk, k to the last 3 sts, k2tog, k1 (8 sts)

Row 35  sl1, ssk, k to the last 3 sts, k2tog, k1 (6 sts)

Row 36  (sl1, ssk, psso), (k2tog, ppso), (k1, ppso) to the end of row

Cut yarn leaving 6" / 15 cm tail

Pull yarn tail through the stitch to secure

Weave in all loose end(s)

Blocking recommended

 

Heart in Circle

It all started with an abstract concept dishcloth.  I had chosen the stitch pattern and knitting techniques, and that included illusion / shadow knitting.

Now, my experience in illusion knitting was just knitting up a scaredy cat dishcloth following a free pattern on Ravelry.  At the time, the link between the knit and purl combo and the pattern it created was not there.

So in order to make my dishcloth creation reality, I went and tried learning illusion knitting.  After watching a video on illusion knitting, and slept on it for a night, I went and wrote up the heart pattern from scratch.  Got it in my second trial :) It is heart in a rectangle.  I wrote down the pattern for my own interest, but since there are so many heart in rectangle illusion knitting patterns, free or paid, out there. I will not join in the circus lol

And then ambition rose, and naturally tried my hand on some other images.  Spade, club and diamond came to mind immediately.  Once I made up the spade, I then relooked at the heart one.  After a little research on illusion knitting and dishcloth, I find that illusion knitting patterns for dishcloth / coaster are usually in square or rectangle.  So I think it will make a contribution to the knitting pattern world to write and publish illusion knitting (no matter how simple the pattern is, things always start small) outside of the square and rectangle, and there came the Heart in Circle.

Heart in Circle is the first of the four (4) patterns in the collection, Furballs' Deck of Cards.  The illusion heart is centre in a flat knitted disc to make a medium size coaster good for beer mug or bowl for snack during a friendly card game.  It does not take a lot of yarns to make and good to use up those small yarn balls left with big projects.

Heart in Circle is now available in my Ravelry store.

Happy knitting :)

Love is in the Air

Maybe it is springtime, my furballs (although they are both fixed) would love to send out more love to people around them.

More Hearts from Furballs is a continuation from another dishcloth, From Furballs with Heart.  The latter I have not published yet.  I do not know why but do not think it is good time for it.

There is a long story in the creation of More Hearts from Furballs.  Starting with some negative energy from the virtual digital world, I tried to prove that creation / design is not about copying old stitch pattern and giving it a different colour work.  There is no added value in those patterns whether they are free or paid, and if they are paid patterns, (sigh).

After doing a little research, I found the woven fabric stitch.  I think the characteristic is that there will be yarn in front of the slip stitch in the stitch pattern and thus creating a woven pattern.  The stitch also makes a very nice feel in the hand.  I then proceeded into some causal and random knitting of the stitch to try out some strange combination and eventually settled with the woven fabric stitch in More Hearts from Furballs.  I was totally captured by the texture this stitch created visually and that it retained the classic woven fabric feel.  I named the stitch Chaotic woven fabric stitch because I can not yet find a visual or pattern match to mine.  It might be known as something different to you.

The next step was to pair it up with other stitches to create an interesting surface and this proved slightly more challenging.  After several trial, eventually came up with a nice heart edge to finish the cloth. I also added in colours to make the cloth visually more interesting.  The piece could be knitted in one (1), two (2) or three (3) colours.  The pattern is basically written for three (3) colours with six (6) yarn tails to weave in.

Half of the dishcloth is in the Chaotic woven fabric stitch giving a very interesting look, the other half is mainly the interaction between stockinette and reverse stockinette stitches.  I also put in picot stitch to highlight the hearts motifs and stop the stockinette rolling with some beautiful hatch stitches. To top it up, the two half pieces and the edge is knitted in different direction, so the Chaotic woven fabric stitch look even more intrigue.

This dishcloth knit pattern is now available in my Ravelry store.

Hope you enjoy this new pattern and happy knitting :D

"Too many hearts, too little time", said Moo Moo

All roads lead to Rome and Sixth Heart in One String is my latest attempt to knit a piece of heart dishcloth using a very different approach.  Instead of mitering, I changed to knitting in bias which is a more familiar technique to dishcloth knitters.  But to make sure everyone on their toes, I changed the normal increase pattern to make it interesting.

Just like all my previous hearts, the Sixth Heart is knitted in one string of yarn from start to finish without breaking or adding yarn to construct the shape.  It guarantees the integrity of the piece and less yarn tail to weave in.

This piece also let me find an ideal place to use the modified kfb and an unusual bind off  technique (at least for me, I don't do it that often and didn't see a lot of it in other patterns).

Sixth Heart in One String and my other heart patterns are now available in my Ravelry store

Enjoy the knitting :D